Tuesday, November 25, 2014

In little over a
month, starting in January of 2010, ten churches located within a 40-mile
radius of a rural section of East Texas were
all burned to the ground. Was this the work of devil worshipping atheists,
arsonists in search of a spectacle, or someone else?

The crimes confounded
the criminal investigators who mounted the largest manhunt in the history of
the region. Eventually, the authorities did crack the case, arresting a couple
of troubled young men, Jason Bourque, 19, and Daniel Mcallister, 21.

Daniel soon started
to sing, confessing after waiving his right to remain silent. He also
implicated his pal Jason in return for word from his interrogator that he’d
receive half the sentence of his co-conspirator. But that handshake wasn’t
worth the paper it was written on, and both defendants landed life sentences when
they got their day in court.

After all, this was
not only the heart of the Bible Belt, but Texas, a state notorious for its lack of
patience for felonious behavior. And when you factor in the ire of unforgiving
church members who’d lost their place of worship, all bets were off in terms of
any promised plea deal.

Little Hope Was Arson
marks the noteworthy directorial debut of Theo Love. The picture is less
sensational than understated as it relates an engaging tale in matter-of-fact
style. Along the way, we learn about the family dysfunction in each of the boy’s
childhood which ostensibly contributed to their lives spiraling out of control.

Personally, I only
felt empathy towards the two upon learning how long they’ll have to spend
behind bars, since nobody died during their month-long reign of terror. But
maybe I was surprised to see a couple of white kids have the Good Book thrown
at them.

Nevertheless, I’m
sure that they were taught right from wrong as little boys, and somewhere along
the way they simply opted for the dark side. So, now they must pay their debt
to society.

The moral? Like the
ghetto gangstas say: If you can’t do the time, don’t commit the crime. I can
only pray that Daniel and Jason’s momentary thrill of setting those buildings
ablaze was worth flushing their futures down the drain.

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The Sly Fox Film Reviews publishes the content of film critic Kam Williams. Voted Most Outstanding Journalist of the Decade by the Disilgold Soul Literary Review in 2008, Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications around the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada and the Caribbean. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee and Rotten Tomatoes.

In addition to a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from Boston University. Kam lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.